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THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 



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By ANNA JENNESS-MILLER. 




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Class 

Book_ 

Copyright N°. 



COFTOICHT DEPOSIT. 



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Triune Development 



Triune Development Series 



TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT. 

The Road to Self-mastery. 

TRIUNE MOVEMENTS. 

Exercises of Rhythm and Joy. 

Illustrated with photographs, diagrams and original musical 
themes, by Bertram Shapleigh 

TRIUNE MOTHERHOOD. 

Its Pains and Pleasures. 

Its Ethical Possibilities. 

Its Spiritual Responsibilities. 

THE BEAUTIFUL STORY OF GOD'S HUMAN GARDEN. 
As mother should tell it to her girls. 

TRIUNE BRIEFLETS. 

The Quarterly Lesson of the Triune Order. 



Triune Development 

The Road to Self-Mastery 

By 

ANNA JENNESS-MILLER 




TOTOO 



New York City 
The Triune Order 

1909 






V 



Copyright, 1909 
By Anna Jenness-Miller 



CLA251539 



Printed by William Green, New York City 



Everything that man undertakes, whether by 
action, word, or in whatsoever way, ought to spring 
from a union of all his faculties.— Goethe. 



There is but one temple in the universe and 
that is the body of man. — Noyaus. 



This age needs to be awakened to a positive 
and vital faith in the living reality and all-em- 
bracing presence of an invisible spiritual kingdom 
of deific life, wisdom and goodness, with which 
man is inwardly and vitally related, and may 
become consciously identified in fellowship of life 
and action. — Dewey. 



Cfje Attune 0xhtv 



WLnity of spirit, fflirib anb pobp. 

actftritp anb feertoice, 

feelf J|elp anb i*elp for ©tfjersL 

#ibe anb tlafee 

in 

Jopoug Reciprocity. 

Cooperation in )£berp department of life. 

jfaitfj l^itfjout ^orfe fe Valueless. 



TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 



The Road to Self-Mastery Is a Rugged Climb, Beset with the 
Temptations of Illusion and the Dangers of Ignorance. At Its 
Summit, Struggle Merges Into the Joy of Spiritual Sovereignty 
Over Mind, and Mental Dominion Over Body. 



The true joy of living is to feel all one's organs and 
faculties keyed to exuberant vitality. Ill health is both 
a physical and spiritual handicap. No one knows this 
better than those who have experienced it. To unfold 
harmoniously, spirit needs sound and symmetrical 
housing. Creative Wisdom provides everything neces- 
sary for this in the wide domain of Nature; but re- 
quires man to transmute crude potentialities into the 
higher potencies for himself. 

Not much that is worth having comes by inspira- 
tion. Work is the key that unlocks the storehouse of 
personal power. Standing "amid the eternal ways" it 
is our privilege to lay hold upon ever-widening oppor- 
tunities for noble development. On this plane of 
activity adjustment of spirit to its instrument of ex- 
pression, the body, is the all-important lesson. Some 
never learn it, and in consequence drag out a miserable 
existence. Others, like myself, struggle into co-opera- 
tion with constructive principles through suffering. 

Twenty years ago I was ignorant of the most 
elementary facts of vital chemistry. My health, never 
good at best, failed entirely because I did not know how 

9 



10 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

to conserve it. Invalidism was not a cheerful outlook 
for one just at the threshold of married life. Fortun- 
ately, however, I had youth and a buoyant temperament. 
Still more to the point, I was determined to get well. 
This led me to study the laws of health for myself. 

Upon Nature's principle that the energy of any 
living organism takes a downward course which cul- 
minates in general deterioration, unless kept at its 
legitimate work of up-building, I based a theory of 
physical re-construction which stood me in good stead 
when put to the test. To begin with, I discarded fash- 
ion's paraphernalia for a simple and natural style of 
dress, taking for granted that bodily organs must have 
freedom to function normally. My next step was daily 
practice of physical exercises. Some of these I learned 
at a school of oratory. Others, especially adapted to 
my needs, were the result of experimenting for myself. 

The more I studied Nature's Laws, the more con- 
vinced was I that intelligent work with nerves and 
muscles generates health in vital organs. Faith in- 
creased as strength returned. Day by day I said 
joyfully, "I am getting better. I am going to be well. 
I am better — there is no doubt about it." I did not 
then know the vitalizing force of such reiteration, nor 
understand the principles by which indwelling certainty 
stimulates physiological processes. 

Out of sheer gratitude for ultimate restoration to 
health, I told occasional sufferers who came my way 
of the means with which I had consciously worked. 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 11 

I could not tell them of the more fundamental life- 
giving powers unconsciously evoked, for I was still as 
ignorant of the Laws of Subjective Mind as I had be- 
fore been of Organic Law. 

Just how the fact of my self-healing spread in the 
first instance I never quite understood. But women began 
to gather from near and far 5 to hear more of the "new 
gospel of health." My home in Washington was be- 
sieged in season and out, like a public institution. With 
ever-increasing enthusiasm for helping those who were 
in the unfortunate plight that I had been, without money 
or price I taught the exercises, and explained the 
essential features of the garments that I wore. These 
were in striking contrast to fashion's deformities, for 
that was the day of heavy skirts and many waist-bands, 
of the curved corset-front, the big bustle, the tie-back, 
and skin-tight sleeves so fitted at the shoulder that one 
must put on her hat before her bodice, as it was almost 
impossible to raise the arms to do so afterward. 

Women's organizations began to invite me to 
address them, and the newspapers took notice. "Here 
is a novelty worth exploiting," they said. And exploit 
it they did, so effectively as to launch me upon the 
professional platform work of Dress Improvement and 
Physical Culture to which I gave ten years of continu- 
ous effort. 

From letters received during that time, and 
since, more than in any other way, have I been able to 
measure what was accomplished. While it is reasonable 



12 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

to suppose that some out of tens of thousands of 
communications from women of as many different 
temperaments were written for effect, by far the larger 
number ring true in their statement of benefit received. 
But what makes such expressions of gratitude more 
sacred and personal than all the rest, is the dominant 
note of faith that there need be no reserve, in pouring 
out the innermost sufferings of soul as well as body, 
to me. 

Between the written lines of too many of these 
communications, alas! are the unwritten records of 
heart struggles, of failure, injustice and wrong 
endured to the breaking-point. Or the still more tragic 
confession of moral and spiritual delinquencies, which 
irresistibly report in bodily condition, as Nature with 
inexorable justice squares her accounts with broken 
laws. 

In the perspective of time, I see that my work was 
from the first as much psychological as physiological. 
Year in and year out, from the platform and in writing, I 
taught that health is not a matter of building from the 
outside, a putting-on, but is instead of inner unfolding. 
If I laid stress upon physical exercise as a means for 
relaxing nerve tension and increasing muscular fibre, I 
also taught that well-rounded development demands bal- 
anced interaction of the powers of mind as well as body. 

Thus by a species of intuitive co-ordination be- 
tween the mental and physical, I kept myself en rapport 
with the stored vitality of Nature, and inspired others 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 13 

to draw vigor from the same inexhaustible source. In 
no other way could I have endured the wearing irreg- 
ularities of travel, the constant exposure to colds in 
draughty public buildings, and the general drain upon 
strength incidental to strenuous one-day-in-a-place 
lecture work for so many years. Neither would the 
effect of my teaching have been the same. 

Full awakening to the rationale of Triune Develop- 
ment, or Unity of Spirit, Mind and Body, came 
when I was no longer in public work. It was, loosely 
speaking, the net result of practical experience, plus an 
accumulation of impressions which had been growing 
in force from day to day. As long as I was in the thick 
of a profession in which all effort converged to a single 
focus, I had no time to probe for the inner significance 
of my own unfolding thought, to say nothing about 
investigating the basic principles of the different schools 
of metaphysical belief which were challenging public 
attention in the name of a Higher Science of Life. 

When personal reasons made it expedient for me 
to withdraw from public work, opportunity came to put 
the accretion of years to rights for comparison with the 
general progress. Without prejudice, with an open and 
candid mind, I read the writings of advanced thinkers, 
and listened to what they had to say, ready and eager 
for still further understanding of how to achieve the 
most practical all-around development. 

And here I use the word practical in its literal 
meaning, because I know that whatever one's mental 



14 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

appreciation of an eloquently clothed ideal, the vital 
question for any true teacher must always be — Can 
this inspiring abstraction be transmuted into an effect- 
ive instrument of helpfulness to the many? Will it 
meet the every-day needs of men and women on life's 
level ? Is it a full-orbed sun, of a radiance to brighten 
the experiences of the struggling millions, or but a 
nebulous reflection of splendid luminaries like those of 
the milky way, so far distant that none but the advanced 
student, straining his gaze through the most powerful 
telescope, can grasp the stupendous truth of it? In 
other words, is it a vision of the higher reaches only, 
or a get-right-down-to-work principle with the vital 
potency to change and improve the hard facts of the 
here and now, of the average man's undevelopment ? 

I have always had the faculty for looking at both 
sides of a question, and rarely take a far-reaching step 
without considering what opposes it in the opposite 
direction. This tendency often acts as a check upon 
enthusiasm which would otherwise carry me beyond 
the point of equilibrium. It was what kept my Dress 
Improvement and Physical Culture work within the 
conservative limits that made it acceptable to so many 
who would have fled from any other known system of 
Dress Reform — for that was what people persisted in 
calling it in spite of my protests. And it was the same 
trend of mind that made my investigation of strictly 
metaphysical postulates a helpful balancing of pros 
and cons, which quickened thought and stimulated 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 15 

intuition, without interfering with my liberty to think 
for myself. 

With due respect for the opinions of those who cut 
loose from belief in the reality of man's physical nature 
I am less prepared to take such an extreme stand 
after giving the subject a good deal of thought, than 
before. The more I study human unfolding, the more 
convinced am I that every Divine command to go for- 
ward into larger understanding has a reason attached 
to it within the lines and limits of Natural Law. 

That the Real Man is, in the last analysis, Spiritual 
needs no argument. Upon the other hand, it takes but 
a walk through the streets of any big city, where every 
stratum of emerging consciousness is in evidence, to 
realize that the larger numbers are still deep in conflict 
with material conditions. It could not be otherwise in a 
world in process of making. This is no cause for dis- 
couragement, and no argument against man's ultimate 
high destiny; but it is a good practical reason for keep- 
ing within the established order, which has unerr- 
ingly brought humanity to its present place on the 
upward road. 

The race achieves maturity of powers by the slow, 
selective work of the centuries. By eliminating this 
to-day, and that to-morrow; discarding theories that 
have served their purpose, and are no longer of use to 
the general upbuilding, while shoring up others, 
so to speak, that may still be turned to good account 
for a time. In this way the noble edifice of human 



16 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

progress rises against a background of outgrown 
traditions and beliefs, as the present Treasury at 
Washington has risen into the solid granite a little at a 
time, every crumbling block and column of the original 
structure replaced by the more enduring stone. 

In its larger aspect, life is a struggle to gain pro- 
portion between spiritual perception, moral character 
and physical health — a Triune Development. The 
best man among us is the one whose three-fold nature 
maintains the most perfect equipoise in the practical 
affairs of life. These are essentially carried on at a 
level where all sorts and kinds of degenerating tenden- 
cies are at work to drag us down. 

The beautiful theory, so often put forward, that 
all the heaven-born forces of the Universe conspire 
together to elevate man, is sanctioned by neither 
science nor the proven facts of life. The plain truth of 
it is, that Creative Wisdom placed man on this planet 
to work out his own spiritual unfolding, through the 
collective experience of flesh and sense. He was given 
the crude implements of his task, with time and the laws 
to improve them ; but nothing more. In other words, 
it has always been Nature's way to help those upward 
who help themselves; and to pull those down who do 
not. 

The most exalted theories that run athwart this 
co-operative principle of the higher development are 
impotent to change its inexorable justice and majesty. 
Neither did Creative Intent make Laws so loosely 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 17 

that man must needs slip the cables of some, in order to 
get a better hold upon others, in the upward climb. 
The Law of human unfolding was, is and always will 
be the same — a three-fold organic, mental and spiritual 
unity. For which reason, those who most stoutly deny 
the reality of physical nature, in effort to exalt spirit, 
have never been able to make good in a thoroughgoing 
way. 

To put it more to the point — Where is the meta- 
physician of any school who has conquered such 
bodily imperatives as the need for rest, sleep, food, 
water, heat, clothing and elimination of waste products 
from the system through the natural channels ? Before 
such an elemental catastrophe as a cyclone or earth- 
quake the believer in the power of mind to control 
matter stands helpless as any other unfortunate. 
Trapped in a burning building or sinking ship, he suffers 
fatal consequences. Accidents crush and mangle his 
flesh and bones without regard to his theories. The 
bullet of an assassin reaches his heart as readily as it 
does that of another of different faith. The deadly 
toadstool, when eaten by mistake for the toothsome 
mushroom, lays him as low as though the thought of 
poison had been uppermost in the mind. He is just as 
dependent upon the light of the sun, the ozone of the 
air, seed-time and harvest as any other. In short, in all 
the vital essentials of mere animal existence there is 
little appreciable difference between men of the widest 
mental and spiritual divergence. 



18 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

To claim, as an occasional one does, that they are 
too busy with loftier phases of mental control to waste 
time in overcoming such trivialities as these, is to beg 
the question. To assert that a little more faith is 
the only thing wanting to make spirit master over 
every condition of life and death proves nothing. 
To say, as still others do, that the unreality of matter, 
and similar postulates, have a different meaning from 
what the uninitiated suppose, is to imply that the 
function of language is to obscure, and not to make 
thought clear. 

Why should truth ever be stated in any but the 
plainest terms ? The better a vital theory is understood, 
the better it serves its purpose. Mysticism, which was 
the breath of religion and the power of the priesthood 
in other ages, has no place in the broad light of a Twen- 
tieth Century day. Let us throw open every door that 
will make the meaning and purpose of man's existence 
clearer. Self-mastery is a matter of self-understanding 
as well as self-control. It can only be gained through 
experience and the discipline which comes from learn- 
ing how to handle the Divinely ordained tools of spiri- 
tual unfolding. 

In the Infinite System of Nature, some laws were 
left for man to bring under control by the vitalizing 
touch of spirit. Others were placed outside the orbit 
of human volition. That the vital chemistry of his be- 
lief renders a consistent metaphysician immune to 
much that would affect the ordinary man is not to be 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 19 

doubted. He would stand a good chance of passing 
scathless through a plague that swept others off by 
hundreds, especially those weakened by fear. Belief 
in health is the most effective of tonics. Sound tissue 
does not furnish the right soil for development of 
deadly microbes. And yet, few sensible people would 
be willing to substitute denial of the reality of Asiatic 
cholera, Bubonic plague, leprosy, yellow fever, small- 
pox, diphtheria, pneumonia and tuberculosis for the 
scientific knowledge and sanitary vigilance which have 
done, and are doing, so much to banish these dread 
specters. 

The wise man does not attempt to shut his eyes to 
the self-evident truth that Organic Law works at its 
highest potentiality under the inspiration of Spirit; but 
finds it a reason for striking physical roots deeper into 
spiritual soil. He works with fuller measure of joyous 
and joy -giving faith than ever before, because he sees 
that the charter of true happiness is right use of all the 
God-given materials at command. 

It does not take allegiance to any fixed system of 
Higher Thought to realize that a resistless mental 
current is formed, and still forming far and wide, which 
carries visible proof of the transfiguring power of 
invisible spirit in the affairs of men. Intelligent in- 
vestigators the world over are concerning themselves 
more with ways and means to gain command of self in 
the Here and Now, than with salvation in some future 
state. They are just awakening to the significant truth 



20 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

that there is, and can be, no eternity but the present; 
that every to-morrow of Life Everlasting is the epitome 
of the experiences and gains of to-days. 

There is nothing one-sided or discouraging about 
human development. It is unhurried, unceasing, self- 
expanding. It is forever upward and onward. A 
constant gaining of inspiration and supremacy of the 
higher over the lower forces of nature, through balanced 
interaction of all. A constant learning of how to 
achieve greater personal effectiveness and larger help- 
fulness to others. 

The world is better to-day than it has ever been, 
simply because greater numbers have more light upon 
the path. It will be better a few years hence than it is 
now. The Spirit of Brotherhood is increasing and 
manifesting in new ways constantly. More people are 
making an effort, in one way and another, to live un- 
selfish lives. In proof of this, one has only to look at 
the achievements of different organizations, to say 
nothing of individuals, whose efforts in behalf of spiritual 
and moral betterment are supplemented by material 
help for the unfortunate, of the most substantial kind. 

The royal possibilities in human nature shine out 
in their true colors when men and women, widely 
separated by race and class traditions, meet upon a 
common ground to weave the Christ-spirit into a pat- 
tern of helpfulness to their fellow beings. History 
records no more beautiful expression of true love for 
humanity, than that of the Christian Rector in New 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 21 

York City, who stood with head bared and church 
bells tolling, while a solemn Jewish procession passed 
by, in sorrow for brothers massacred in a far-away land. 

It matters little to the ordinary traveler under what 
flag he sails the ocean, if the captain on the bridge be 
an able mariner, who knows how to bring his ship 
safely into port. The name of the religion, or system, 
by which we embark upon the broad sea of pro- 
gressive activity, is of even less consequence. What 
concerns us is whether its teachings have the true 
quality to pilot us through the rocks and shoals of human 
weakness; through ignorance and temptations into the 
harbor of noble self-understanding and self-mastery. 

Some systems of belief attract us more sympathet- 
ically than others. But this is not in itself argument 
that one has more of truth than another. We are all 
too prone to think convictions out-of- joint with the 
eternal verities which differ from our own. We should 
remember that no religious belief, or system of thought, 
ever took hold of large numbers of mankind, that did 
not have truth for its carrying power, however great its 
attendant error. Even greater emphasis should be laid 
upon the probability that what satisfies inner percep- 
tions to-day, will be changed to-morrow by increased 
understanding. 

No age or nation, no sect or people ever had, or 
will have, a monopoly of Truth. Truth is progressive. 
It unfolds with men's own unfoldment. The seers and 
prophets of the ages have been pathfinders for the 



22 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

masses ; leaders who have scaled the heights of spiritual 
insight, and flung the life-line of uplifting thought to 
struggling pilgrims, along the slopes. 

Triune Development is not presented to the public 
as a system of original thought, nor in the desire to 
make the golden grains of truth which it contains serve 
as a background for personality, All so-called new 
thought has rise in what has preceded it. Connection 
between the new and old is always easy to find. Neither 
should ability to apply truth in a helpful way be mis- 
taken for power to originate it. There is not a teacher 
whose work has progressive merit, but owes the stimulus 
for it to the energy of ideas poured out by myriads of 
minds through long periods of time. None of us can 
lay claim to anything more than putting ideas forward 
in a sincere and helpful way. When a new inspi- 
ration comes to you or me, we may be sure that it has 
come to others besides. That is the way Truth 
travels. How often it happens that a brilliant 
mental theory, or a principle of scientific or me- 
chanical value, challenges public attention from 
widely separated sources at the same time. Each 
investigator is prepared to prove that his conclusions 
were reached independently of the others. Thus, fed 
from the depths of Infinite Mind, the life-stream of 
progress flows from the four quarters of the world to 
enrich a common humanity. 

As a name to symbolize teaching devoted to the 
Laws of man's three-fold growth, Triune Development 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 23 

was selected as that most adequate. Spiritual and 
mental control of physical nature can reasonably be 
slated in the terms of The Triune Order of Unfolding — 
or Development of Body, Mind and Spirit in Unity. 

Triune Development rests upon the authority of 
Religion and Science, which make it plain that the 
means for man's perpetual unfolding from lower to 
higher was wrought into the bases of Laws eternal and 
unchanging. What persisting energy of physical con- 
struction and re-construction; what automatic func- 
tional activity; what transforming of material elements 
into living structure; what advance from undeveloped 
to developed, from imperfect to perfect there was before 
physical man became fitted to express thought and 
spiritual volition. But in the hour that the higher 
consciousness awoke in organic nature, the race entered 
upon a new phase of unfolding from which there is no 
retreat. Henceforth every faculty of spirit, mind and 
body must co-operate for the fulness and power of a 
balanced life. 

It is not that the last man is not as much under the 
Reign of Organic Law as the first one was; but that 
the upward struggle has given him use of faculties 
that were potential in the beginning. Man had to 
perfect and learn how to use his physical instrument, 
before he could reach out and lay hold upon the energies 
of the spiritual plane. But proof is ample that he did 
not lose his connection with Physical Law, nor de- 
pendence upon it, in the process 



24 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

Here is the main point of difference between 
strictly Metaphysical and Triune Belief. The former 
cuts loose from physical moorings, in theory at least. 
The latter holds that Evolution furnishes the best of 
proof that man was intended to live consciously in every 
part of himself, and with the definite purpose to make 
physical vigor yield potency to spiritual unfolding, even 
as the power of spirit increases physical control. In 
other words, Triune Development teaches balanced 
interaction of the higher spiritual and lower organic. 
To put it even more clearly, in the ascending scale, the 
faculties of body must obey the behest of spirit, as a 
good soldier obeys his superior officers. Spirit is the 
commanding general in Life's battle; mind and brain 
are the executive staff; nerves, muscles and other 
organs the fighting corps. 

Man's equipment for life is the most perfect that 
Creative Wisdom could have made. Nothing is want- 
ing that serves humanity's higher needs. But the work 
of molding crude material into enduring symmetry 
must be carried on by man himself at the level of the 
general understanding at all times, as the Law provides. 
For this reason, Triune Development picks men and 
women up where it finds them ; and works with means 
adapted to the needs of the differing social strata. 

Without attempt to force radiant visions from far- 
off vistas of human progress, what are the facts of the 
life going on around us? It is a practical question 
that calls for a practical answer from those who 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 25 

honestly wish to find the best way to help themselves 
and others at the same time. The most inspiring theory 
may prove but words in the face of a pressing need to 
make good. This is not to say that every impulse for 
the higher, every optimistic forecast, every glowing 
word -picture does not add impetus to human uplift. 
In ideals set to "the music of the spheres," in the far 
reaches of imagination, men often find stimulus for 
effort that would be well-nigh impossible otherwise. 
And in so far as these give courage to push onward, and 
wrest the "glorious liberty of the sons of God" from 
rugged reality, they serve the manifest purpose of 
Creative Intent. 

But the situation is changed when faith and the 
higher ideals are expected to do the work of Law. 
Man's spiritual outlook changes and enlarges with his 
growth. But the Law of it remains the same to-day 
that it was yesterday, and will be through all the to- 
morrows of Time. The biologist knows as certainly 
that future races will come into the world and climb 
to physical maturity by the established order of re- 
production, growth and repair, as the astronomer 
knows that the wandering comet will appear again in 
obedience to the Law of Attraction, which holds every 
sun, star and planet in the Sidereal System true to its 
course. 

Enough has been written to show that Triune 
Development Teaching is based upon the belief that 
full command of self comes by noble use of all the 



26 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

functions and faculties of the three-fold nature. While 
passing through this sphere of its unfolding, Spirit, the 
Eternal Real, must of necessity co-operate with Or- 
ganic Law for symmetry and proportion. Not to do so 
is to run athwart Creative Wisdom, which designed the 
physical body to serve man's needs in this world. That 
the atoms used by Law for his housing here, disintegrate 
and form new combinations when man passes on, is 
no argument against the independent life principle in 
each atom, and in all atoms, commonly classed in the 
aggregate as matter. 

A man is no more real than a tree. His is a different 
kind of reality. The life of the tree is limited to matter, 
so far as we know. Man, upon the contrary, there is 
every reason to believe, belongs to an Eternal Order, 
in which birth and re-birth into physical conditions, 
that he may gain all earthly experience from primitive 
to complex, is as it were but a single phase out of 
millions of phases of spiritual activity and pro- 
gression. 

Triune Belief holds that Laws were designed to set 
men free, not to handicap them. It accepts obedience 
to their mandates as a constitutional necessity of human 
unfolding. It regards suffering as the growing pains of 
formative experience; passion as the brute energy of 
undeveloped life forces at work in crude attempt to 
use the tools provided in Nature's workshop for model- 
ing life into a pattern of physical health and moral 
beauty. It holds the struggle of virtue with vice, knowl- 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 27 

edge with ignorance, health with disease, self-less-ness 
with selfishness, to be the struggle of the divine spir- 
itual with the human physical, in efforts to acquire 
proportion and equipoise — the only true self-command. 

Triune Development teaches that every organ, fac- 
ulty and sense has its legitimate use when brought under 
the orderly control of spirit. Self-mastery is a greater 
achievement than self-repression. The religious re- 
cluse does no wrong. His buried talent is safe. But his 
is a negative virtue. The best servant of life is now as 
in the days of the Master's teaching, the one who renders 
an account of powers increased by right use. 

The average man is forced to gain experience in 
the open, beset by foes within and without. Any theory 
of development which is not broad enough to apply to 
the whole gamut of life, with all of its varying conditions 
good, bad and indifferent, must fail of its purpose. 
Upon every side, in high places and low, from palace 
to hovel, is ignorance to be overcome. It is reflected in 
a thousand and one different ways, out of reach of the 
ordinary run of generalities for human improvement. 
An everyday working belief must have the wearing 
qualities of homespun. For moments of glorified 
vision upon the mountain peaks of thought, there are 
hours of pilgrimage in the valley of the commonplace, 
where trials, temptations and > sordid duties test our 
mettle and prove the value of our faith. 

Books written from the heights exhilarate and 
thrill us as does a noble symphony or a painted or sculp- 



28 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

tured masterpiece. Ideals are beacon lights on the 
shores of life — But they are not life itself. 

For faithful portraiture of humanity we must go to 
the newspapers ; and get into vital contact with men and 
women upon the highways and in the by-ways of every- 
day existence. We must know them for the suffering, 
struggling, conquering souls that they are. In no other 
way can we get perspective and realize the grandeur of 
Almighty Wisdom in creating Man and the Law — Life 
and a Principle for its unceasing upward Growth. 

In the great Scheme of the Everlasting the physical 
plays but a temporary part. But that part is an essen- 
tial unit in the perfected whole. And the Law of it is as 
divine as what follows upon the spiritual plane. All 
Law is symmetrical and logical in sequence. This is 
the three-fold plane of human unfolding, and attempt to 
live the life of pure spirit here is contrary to the Law of 
Triple-Unity governing this sphere of activity. It 
leads irresistibly to the cloister and cell, to solitude and 
meditation away from the haunts of men; out of touch 
with the world's busy interests, and largely out of 
sympathy with the practical needs of its struggling 
millions. 

It is just as important to recognize and provide 
for the human demands of our Triune Natures, as for 
the spiritual. What is real life but understanding 
and sympathy, unselfishness and helpfulness toward 
others, and joy within ourselves for every good gift of 
body, as well as spirit ? To truly live is to love life and 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 29 

see beauty in every phase of it: from primitive instincts 
for the better in the least developed of mankind, to the 
finer psychological perceptions of those older in the 
struggle and more matured by longer experience. 

To be gloriously human — and what else should we 
wish to be in human form ? — is to be rounded and self- 
mastered in every vital organ and function. To be 
self-mastered is to know and reverence and keep the 
Laws of our Triune Growth. In other words, to be 
humanly-spiritual — the only proportioned spirituality 
possible in this life in physical organism — one must hold 
fast to belief in the good and true in everything ; know- 
ing that nothing is that is not of Divine Origin and 
according to the Laws of Creative Wisdom from the 
beginning. 

Without exaggeration, ours can be called the age of 
specialists for self-improvement and the regeneration of 
others. In whatever direction we turn the man with a 
theory is there. It may be spiritual or physical — but 
a "cure-all" it is sure to be, in either case. 

Spiritual denial of the reality of the material uni- 
verse, and everything in it, meets a counter claim that 
the only thing man knows or can know, is what he per- 
ceives with his senses. Therefore the only rational 
belief must be making the most of everything on earth. 
One man finds a certain school of physical development 
the royal road to health here, and the way to acquire 
virtue that will insure happiness hereafter. Another 
is certain that deep breathing alone gives command of 



30 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

all the forces of growth within and without; while a 
third is profoundly convinced that the whole gospel of 
true living can be summed up in — "As a man thinketh, 
so is he." One says the mainspring of righteous energy 
is eating the right foods. The next man is equally con- 
vinced that it is not the kind of food we eat, but the way 
we eat it that counts. 

The list is too long to follow out. It runs the 
whole length of human experience, and presents diffi- 
culties greater than those of a Chinese puzzle to 
one who is truly seeking light upon the path. It is 
only when all these theories are brought to focus and 
proportion within the Law, that we see each one at its 
own value, as a single nugget from out the inexhaustible 
mine of Truth. 

Triune Development takes its rise in recognition 
of the essential unity of all tried and proven means for 
growth under the Law. And makes no stumbling- 
block of the scientific fact that matter is the ever- 
changing and indestructible substance used by the 
Life-Principle for all structural purposes — The rai- 
ment, but not the man. 

Triune Development is not a theory in the common 
acceptation of the term. It works with what is self- 
evident. Symmetrical human development can be 
proven neither more nor less than balanced use of all 
the forces of nature, by which "we are changed into 
the same image from glory to glory." Triune Devel- 
opment does not set up to analyze or define Life or 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 31 

Spirit, or don the cap of wisdom in effort to prove 
postulates for which no rationale can be found. 

It does no good to claim that spirit can set all the 
demands of nature at defiance upon this plane of its un- 
folding. In comes the Law to prove the folly of it by 
holding every man of us true to the logical sequence of 
birth, automatic functional activity during growth to ma- 
turity, decline to age, and the final change called death. 

And if it could, what would be gained ? Does not 
intelligent co-operation with Law offer broad enough 
scope for human activity and growth into self -mastered 
manhood to satisfy every longing? Where is the limit 
set ? Organic Law can be proven adequate to the most 
perfect health and radiant beauty of form and contour 
— and all true beauty is a power for good. The most 
profound mental grasp of the world's greatest thinkers 
has never yet sounded the full capacity of the mechanism 
of the human brain. While Spiritual Law, which 
satisfies man's desire for everlastingness, at the same 
time meets his every-day need for something greater 
than himself, "in which to live and move and have his 
being." As long as man desires nobler realizations — 
and that will be as long as time endures — Spiritual 
Law will keep at its work of weaving the supernal 
pattern of it into the imperishable fibre of him. 

But the mistake must not be made of sitting down 
with hands folded, to let everything take its own course. 
The Law, which is always operative, works with abso- 
lute impartiality to help man up or down, as he decrees. 



32 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

It is true that nature carries on such automatic phys- 
iological processes as breathing, the heart's action, 
digestion, secretion, and other functional activities, 
independent of man's help. But always at a lower 
potentiality without than with his co-operation. The 
rationale of the higher development, physical, mental 
and spiritual, is first, last and forever Co-operation with 
the Law. And it is with this underlying principle of 
the higher growth that Triune Development works. 

The object of the Triune Order of Teaching is to 
bring those who wish to understand the best means 
for self-development, and helping others, into touch, 
and in general to stimulate interest in sound and sane 
methods of progress. Triune Development aims to 
teach all who are interested how to gain the fulness and 
power of the balanced life, at the level of their own un- 
derstanding and needs. For we must not forget the 
wide differences in human nature; or take it for granted 
that what helps one man is going to turn all others out 
in the same mold, without regard to different degrees 
of intellectual grasp. 

Proportion is one thing to the man on the lower 
stratum of the human struggle ; another to the one fur- 
ther up. But the Law which reaches from Infinite to 
Infinite is inclusive enough to make men proportioned 
and self-mastered with such material as each has 
at command — and still further to provide the true 
bond of human sympathy, within which all may work 
together for the common good. 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 33 

Before stating the general purposes of the Triune 
Order, and the practical work to be taken in hand by 
members and students, at greater length, emphasis 
must be laid upon cultivation of an unprejudiced and 
tolerant mind as the most fundamental principle of its 
teaching. Those ready for any system will accept it of 
their own free will when it is presented in a clear and 
convincing way. Effort to make others do so by 
dogmatism and argument is opposed to the true spirit 
of liberty. 

No one with the most elemental sense of individual 
rights would attempt to bind another and drag him in 
a direction in which he did not wish to go. Yet this is 
just what we do with spirit, when we seek to coerce 
belief. Any of us may sow seed from our own garden 
broadcast, but the flowering must be left to the higher 
law of growth. Perfect freedom is essential to perfect 
development. Through the ages, men have fought 
for liberty of thought and action, so deeply is the justice 
of it wrought into human consciousness. How much 
more inviolate should be held man's right to freedom of 
spirit! 

Triune Teaching first takes up the physical plane 
of Tri-Unity, because that is the way Nature leads. 
Organic Law must have begun the work of getting man 
ready for spiritual unfolding upon this plane, at a point 
far below the most savage state of life to be found any- 
where to-day. It is claimed by those who ought to know 
that no primitive or barbaric race has ever been dis- 



34 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

covered that did not have some kind of instinctive 
spiritual belief, however crude. 

But if Evolution be true, as we believe, there must 
have been long periods of time before a single cell — 
in which the race began life on earth — had climbed to 
the stature of man, when there could have been no 
evidence whatever of his ultimate high destiny. Just 
as the single cell in which the human infant begins life 
to-day is indistinguishable from that of any other 
animal — all having the same unformed protoplasm for 
a starting-point, and working out their own destiny 
according to the pattern furnished by Creative Energy, 
for each, from the beginning. 

And afterward, in the dim dawn of spiritual con- 
sciousness, the lower forces of nature so far outstripped 
the higher that man was regarded as a physical rather 
than a spiritual being; whose real mission on earth was 
saving his soul for a heaven of do-nothingness forever 
afterward — a state so opposed to the whole Divine 
Scheme of revealed life and activity that the wonder is 
Religion even endorsed it. 

Man's Triple-Unity, as Spirit, Mind and Body, is 
just beginning to be understood — and, I regret to say, 
misunderstood as well. Man, as spirit, a spark from 
the Eternal forced by the Laws of its own spiritual 
origin to perpetual unfolding; in full command of 
mind and body, the instruments designed for contact 
with other forms of life on earth, is a new being that we 
are but little acquainted with. It is not strange that 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 35 

in effort to explain him, some swing out of the angle of 
vision in which he appears in true character as a Triune 
Being, and present him one-sidedly as having neither 
physical reality nor connection with what can be per- 
ceived by the senses. 

Triune Development is teaching for all, because 
it works with all the laws of man's nature. It stands 
for bodily improvement by every scientific as well as 
spiritual means. The causes for sickness and suffering, 
immorality and crime, poverty and wretchedness, are 
grounded in undevelopment and ignorance. The 
cure is not theory, but practical helpfulness. Generali- 
zations will not make the world better. We may tell a 
sick mother with a half dozen children dependent upon 
her for support, not to worry, that worry kills; that a 
serene mind and cheerful outlook are what she needs 
for happiness. And such advice, which also contains a 
precious grain of truth, will probably fall upon deaf ears. 
Or she will cry out in her misery, as the hungry woman 
did when the pious deacon prayed with her, exhorting 
the Lord to send faith and patience and fortitude — 
"And potatoes, Lord, potatoes!" 

Potatoes are, figuratively, the practical side of 
Triune Development. What mental healer would 
accept the challenge to restore a starving man to robust 
health, without the aid of nourishment? The Master 
himself set the example of proportioned recognition of 
Law when he said to the Pharisees, who condemned 
the disciples for phicking and eating the corn on the 



36 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

Sabbath, "Have ye not read so much as this, what 
David did, when himself was an hungered, and they 
which were with him; how he went into the house of 
God, and did take and eat the showbread and gave 
also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful 
to eat but for the priests alone?" 

With food, and other things symbolized by it, to 
satisfy the demands of organic nature; and faith and 
all beautiful ideals for spiritual hunger, we have the 
perfect combination for starving humanity. 

Triune Teaching begins with physical develop- 
ment for the soundest of reasons. There are millions of 
undeveloped, underfed, diseased and deformed men, 
women and children in the world, whose physical suffer- 
ings, moral delinquencies and other crimes can be traced 
directly or indirectly to lack of proper exercise, right breath- 
ing, wholesome food, sanitary surroundings and propor- 
tioned activities . The need for healthy lung tissue, a sound 
heart, strongmuscles, steady nerves, good blood and a clear 
brain must claim first attention in any balanced system 
of development. These are the bases of happy, useful 
living day by day, and the only sane foundation upon 
which to build hope for a future worth having. 

What we are at any given time is the net result of 
all we ever have been. Each one is responsible for the 
house in which he lives. He can make it big and broad 
and roomy, and filled with beautiful furnishings; or 
narrow and cramped and overflowing with inharmoni- 
ous and discordant things. 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 37 

We hear this truth so often in one way or another, 
that it would seem a platitude, were it not repeated to 
give emphasis to the still more fundamental truth that, 
while man in the last analysis is his own master-builder, 
he is still dependent upon external nature for con- 
structive materials to work with. And above all, upon 
conditions, often outside his own control, for oppor- 
tunity to use these in the best way. There are few 
people, whatever their station in life, who have not 
experienced such handicap first or last. 

Enthusiasts are apt to let the glamor of the ultimate 
blind them to the practical difficulties in the way of 
attaining it. Triune Teaching, upon the contrary, aims 
to get behind the things to be desired, into vital touch 
with the things that are. To find causes which oper- 
ate against man's ability to translate higher poten- 
tialities into noble activities. And thus armed, to 
aid in removing obstacles to progress by rational 
means. 

To return to the starting-point of Triune Develop- 
ment. Ten years in the thick of a work that proved the 
practical value of systematic exercise in health-building 
suggested still further study and investigation along the 
same lines. This in turn led to belief that muscular 
movements having a mental and spiritual, as well as 
physical, purpose can not only be made to serve as 
physiological correctives of depressed nerve and muscu- 
lar conditions, but as psychic inspiration to pure hap- 
piness for its own sake — A force too little reckoned with 



38 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

by most of those who are interested in ways and means 
for improving humanity. 

Triune Movements, as a system, were the outcome 
of much study and experiment. Every Triune move- 
ment has a motive. Interesting in itself, this is still 
further enhanced by original musical interpretation, 
the work of Mr. Bertram Shapleigh, of England; who, 
born an American, achieved such instant success among 
the highest critics and lovers of the art abroad that he 
has since become, to all intents and purposes, a Euro- 
pean composer. 

Triune movements not only tone up muscles and 
nerves, and through them the whole body, but what 
is of equal consequence to balance and propor- 
tion, satisfy the inborn love of joyous movement — 
which is as old as humanity — Something lacking in 
modern systems of hard and fast, by-the-rule physical 
exercises, my own earlier system included. Not that 
Triune movements do not conform to rules of the 
highest. But these have rise in feeling as well as 
movement ; in sentiment as well as science ; and express 
the spontaneous delight of controlled freedom — if the 
expression may be permitted — in use of the instru- 
ments of motion and emotion; no less than satisfac- 
tion that such freedom is the royal road to vital 
health. In other words, Triune movements are, 
broadly stated, more inclusive in purpose and con- 
sequently better adapted to accomplish far-reaching 
results than other systems of exercise based upon 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 39 

different understanding of what constitutes symmet- 
rical development. 

In the limited space at command in this little book 
whose purpose does not extend beyond giving a bird's- 
eye view, as it were, of what is meant by Triune Devel- 
opment, Triune Teaching and the Triune Order, 
more space need not be devoted to this particular 
branch of the work, basic though it be. In the book, 
" Triune Movements," the underlying principles of 
balanced bodily development are explained at length. 
Diagrams and photographs show how to practice 
the movements, with or without the accompanying 
music, according to convenience. 



The Measure of a Man's Personal Worth Lies in the Degree of 
Unity Attained Between His Spiritual, Mental and Physical 
Powers — His Value to the World in the Extent of His Activity 
in Putting These to Service for the Common Good. 



The general principles of the Triune Order of Devel- 
opment furnish a broad platform. Those who accept 
it in good earnest will find enough to do at home and 
abroad to save them from asking, as so many do out of 
sheer ennui, " Is life really worth living ?" The very spirit 
of Triune Teaching is to make one's own life worth 
living by helping others to make theirs so. The Triune 
Order of Belief opposes, " Every man for himself and 
the devil take the hindermost," with, Every man for 
others as well as self, and the devil put out of 
business. 

Almost any worker of large experience among the 
masses can recall instances of spontaneous giving from 
pitiful little stores to others more wretched, under 
stress of sympathy that would make many an one in 
stately mansions blush for their own indifference to 
what is going on at their doors, did they know the facts. 
But seeing and knowing is just what such people too 
often avoid — much as tender-hearted children run from 
the sight of an animal in the hands of a cruel com- 
panion, forgetting the tormented creature the moment 
they are out of sound of its cries. 

Few of us are monsters of selfishness and cruelty. 
But self-centred and lacking in perspective of our true 
relatedness to others we are. We strain and strive to 

40 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 41 

gain and get for self. And set up false gods whose re- 
sounding emptiness becomes the burden of later years. 
We rush after Mammon and his throng, with ears 
closed to other needs and eyes for nothing but the 
glitter and glamor of life; and act generally as if the 
world and everything in it was made to satisfy our 
desires; until the inevitable reaction comes — for the 
exhilaration of selfishness never lasts. It is up to-day 
and down to-morrow. Periods of great elation fol- 
lowed by others of depression, for which the casual 
observer sees no reason. But the reason is there. It is 
all according to Law. 

Life overflows with the reactions of disproportion. 
They report on the physical plane in too many dif- 
ferent ways to enumerate from "blues" to neuras- 
thenia and melancholia — according to the measure of 
each one's offense. Sometimes these reactions are the 
result of indifference, but oftener of ignorance of the 
Law that makes balanced activity and usefulness the 
way of abiding peace and happiness; and stepping- 
stones to health that is only symmetrical when it is of 
mind and spirit as well as body. 

What a glorious combination is worldly wealth 
united to understanding and purpose to use it royally 
for others, as the Ruler of the Universe uses his riches 
for all alike! For we must not make the mistake of 
thinking that the extremes of human condition as we 
know them are proof that some men are better 
beloved of the Father than others, for He works 



42 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

impartially by Law alone. His Law of Love is also his 
Law of Justice. Law moves in majestic sequence 
which knows no distinctions from the savage in the 
jungle to the monarch on the throne; from the sinner 
to the saint; from ignorance personified by the lowest, 
to knowledge incarnate in the highest. From Cause to 
Effect, the Infinite always Works by Law. 

In Nature the sun shines, the rain falls, the harvest 
ripens for all alike. That one man appropriates more 
of the harvest than another at present is not due to any 
defect in the Law, but to the unequal stages of men's 
development upon the line of march. The man at the 
top has been at the bottom. The man at the bottom 
will reach the top, and by the same road as those who 
have gone before. There is no other. It is the Law. 
Nature provides the same starting-point for all; the 
same organic, mental and spiritual potentialities from 
the foundation; the same principle of unfolding, with 
equal freedom for all to choose between right use of 
their forces of growth, or wrong. 

At some points through the ages men make much 
of their opportunities, and in such consonance with the 
higher that they forge ahead rapidly. At others they 
do not; and as a result slip backward into varying 
degrees of degeneracy, according to the measure of each 
one's neglect of the Law. These are the men of fine 
intellect and good natural powers, from whom great 
things are looked for, who disappoint expectation in 
the end. They are the ones who seem to deliberately 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 43 

choose the ways of darkness, instead of light. The 
men of unequal balance, whose passions are given 
free-rein to ride rough-shod over all finer instincts — 
those who betray sacred trusts, preferring the gains of 
dishonesty to better things won by nobler means. They 
are the men who become embezzlers and defaulters, 
forgers and swindlers, who rob widows and orphans, 
wrong wives and children and ruin hearts and homes — 
The men of disproportioned physical, mental and spir- 
itual development. 

When these men emerge again upon the upward 
highway — as emerge they must when they have paid 
their debt to the Law, "to the uttermost farthing," 
they will have a different understanding of "As a man 
sows so shall he reap." Such are the Principles of 
Growth for all. 

The question then to be asked by each one in the 
silence day by day, is — How are we sowing ? What will 
the harvest be? Are we sowing in a way to reap the 
joys of a balanced life, or the sorrows and disappoint- 
ments of disproportion? If we are not sowing for the 
higher, why not? What stands in the way? What 
other realizations compare with the three-fold poise of 
the self -mastered life ? What is better worth having ? 

These are the questions that the Triune Order has 
been founded to assist in answering at the level of human 
nature's present needs. The answer reaches beyond the 
individual to the Eternal Brotherhood. It is a question 
of helpfulness, first to self, then one to another, man to 



44 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

man, through the whole endless chain which links us 
to the Everlasting Spiritual. 

Triune Development recognizes all life as unde- 
veloped and formative from lowest to highest. Dif- 
ferent degrees of immorality, viciousness and crime are 
the varied manifestations of different states of ignorance 
and dis-organization. When we are wiser the treat- 
ment will be corrective, not punitive. 

Already there is some evidence pointing to the 
time when sanatoria, gymnasia and homes provided 
with all scientific and rational means for education of 
hearts, hands and brain for productive work, will take 
the place of reformatories, jails and prisons in dealing 
with the morally infirm and unbalanced — a day when 
the lower tendencies of human nature will no longer be 
held in the leash of suppression, by misunderstanding 
of the true character of that for which eradication by 
three-fold development is the only cure. 

Love as the Master taught it, and humane guid- 
ance will be the recognized road along which to lead 
men to self-mastery and the power to "rise on stepping- 
stones of their dead selves to higher things." In that 
day we shall see that the legal execution of one or more 
offenders does nothing for the advancement of Civil 
Law and Order in the aggregate; and no longer rob 
these unfortunates of the remnant of their experience 
in the body, in the name of Christian civilization and 
justice. 

Not that all misdemeanors and crimes manifest in a 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 45 

way to call down punishment at the hands of other men. 
There are offenders in high places who escape the laws 
of their country — but none who escape the Law of 
Cause and Effect. From exalted positions of worldly 
pomp and power, it is true that many who cannot 
plead ignorance of the nature of their acts defy 
the most sacred of unwritten laws, and arrogantly 
trample upon obvious principles of equity year after 
year, until it comes to be said, "There is one law for 
the rich and powerful, and another for the poor and 
obscure." 

But back of such seeming, Everlasting Law Reigns. 
However deep such an one may sink into moral 
lethargy, and however brazen his injustice toward his 
fellow-men may become for a time, he is still within the 
psychic vibrations of a principle of unfolding more 
inexorable and more just than any conceived of man. 
Behind the bolts and bars of self-accusing conscience 
moral leprosy stands revealed in the end to a judge 
whose "Unclean! Unclean!" carries with it a sentence 
that needs no interpretation to make clear that knowl- 
edge brings added responsibilities; and power added 
privileges for noble service, penalty for neglect of 
which one must pay in full to the Law of Degeneracy. 

It is the inevitable lesson awaiting all who waste 
opportunities that understanding of the higher brings. 
The most difficult, perhaps, of all the lessons of dis- 
proportion man has to learn. For, unlike many 
others of ignorance and undevelopment, neglect to 



46 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

make righteous use of the functions of true living 
has the effect to turn energy in the opposite direction 
that would under other conditions, make for progress. 
Thus forced downward by a law of his own choosing, 
man can only recover lost ground under conditions 
complicated and made harder by ever-increasing con- 
sciousness of the value of what has been wilfully sacri- 
ficed. 

Any three-fold system of development must of 
necessity take notice of the increase of functional dis- 
turbances of purely mental origin in the present day. 
These are the result of increasingly complex conditions 
of modern methods of living. Some of the more recent 
forms of nervous and mental troubles manifest in ways 
that are the despair of the ordinary drug specialist. 
Some known to be the outcome of mental states act 
so much like a virulent poison in the blood, and have 
such pronounced physical symptoms, that medical skill 
reluctantly admits its inability to furnish the cure. 

This class of diseases very generally yields to 
Christian and Mental Faith Healing — and for the best 
of reasons. It would take a very large prejudice indeed 
to argue that it is better to treat an effect without 
results, than a cause, with. It is because diseases are 
as often of mind as body that we cannot lay down 
hard and fast claims for a "cure-all" by one specific 
school of healing or another. 

There are forms of disease which are as logically 
healed by faith and prayer as others are by the science 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 47 

and skill of materia medica. Wise physicians are com- 
ing to recognize this truth, and work with it to a greater 
extent than is generally understood. The only wonder 
is that any of us have been so long in admitting what is 
self-evident — especially as we claim to draw inspiration 
from a Master's teaching who made this principle 
clear enough two thousand years ago. 

Hold what opinion we may in general of the ex- 
treme postulates of the different Higher Thought 
Cults ; and of those of the venerable founder of Christian 
Science in particular; the debt we owe to her and to 
them, is real, and need not be grudgingly admitted. 
Our attention has been called to a long-neglected truth 
of the utmost importance, in a way so forcible that there 
never can be any going back to the dense ignorance as 
to the power of thought which prevailed before. 

There is reason to believe that the early Christian 
Fathers made constant use of spiritual control or 
thought suggestion. The vitality of this principle no 
doubt helped to cement the hold of the Church upon 
the people of that day. It certainly explains the potency 
of the sacred relic in this. It also adds another proof to 
the many that thought must hereafter be reckoned 
with as a positive force for good or evil in the affairs of 
life. Whatever the source of it, no sincere person need 
fear to incorporate a grain of proven truth into his 
daily working belief. Rather should we fear that 
narrowness of vision may prevent us from putting it to 
proportioned use of the whole. 



48 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

Triune Development never loses sight of the ob- 
stacles to self-mastery and balanced progress that have 
rise in the mind alone — for thought works in pulling 
down as well as in building up. Many who should 
lead in all good work by reason of superior advantages, 
contribute nothing but stumbling blocks because of 
their unfortunate mental attitude toward people and 
things in general. This is a point of special emphasis, 
for we are too apt to think that the best is always to 
be found at the so-called top of the social strata, the 
worst at the bottom. Yet a diamond-bedecked bodice 
is even more apt to cover a heart filled with the canker 
of envy, selfishness and similar unlovely traits, than the 
rougher garb of poverty. 

The reason is plain. It has nothing to do with the 
sentimentality that concerns itself more with making 
a highly colored picture of class distinction than with 
truth — the kind that portrays all the poor as neces- 
sarily virtuous and down-trodden, and all the rich 
as heartless and arrogant. As if the inner struggles 
of human growth were subject to modifications by the 
mere length of the purse! 

Such causes of disproportion as excess of worldly 
pride, uncharitableness, lust of possession, petty power 
and other degenerating conditions bred of idleness and 
self-indulgence, are the exact opposite of those that 
operate to produce mental and physical disproportion 
in the lives of the poor and humble. But the latter, 
which have their roots in hardship, overwork, self- 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 49 

repression and lack of all joyous incentive to self- 
betterment, are no less real. One who studies life 
without prejudice, with an open mind, seeking truth for 
its own sake, in the desire to contribute to the gen- 
eral uplift, will find organic disturbances which can only 
be cured by the most practical means. 

There are troubles that need nothing but alterna- 
tions of rest and proportioned exercise in the blessed 
sunshine and fresh air, with plenty of pure water, good 
food and a mind free from worriment — the troubles 
found in dark, crowded, ill-ventilated quarters, where 
every reasonable condition is wanting for sound body 
and brain building. And there are the nerve racking 
anxieties of poverty, that stalking specter whose grim 
presence casts its shadow over so many hearts and 
homes. There are the mental agonies born of decep- 
tion and betrayal at the hands of beloved ones and 
trusted — a species of misery as likely to be found in the 
abode of wealth as in the hovel of want. There are 
the lonely and misunderstood in all walks of life, whose 
depression of spirit is due to heart-hunger and longing 
for kindness and vital sympathy. There are the sor- 
rows of loss of too many kinds to enumerate; and the 
dull monotony of lives that never know the tonic of joy 
from year's end to year's end. There are the troubles of 
moral disproportion, which must be isolated and treated 
as dangerous — diseases of violence that can only be 
eradicated by the divinest of means. There are heart- 
aches caused by varying forms of degeneracy which 



50 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

involve whole families, and frequently drag honored 
names in the dust. 

The list is a long one. The troubles are as manifold 
as the conditions governing life itself. And the cure 
cannot be found in theories and generalities, however 
inspiring in themselves. Certain as it is " that all things 
work together for good" in the Infinite, this exalted 
truth will not do duty for your neglect or mine in failing 
to translate inner perception into self-improvement and 
helpfulness to others. 

Nor can the ordinary method of giving be called 
true helpfulness. In a Christian community nothing 
takes the place of warm human sympathy and the 
hearty grasp of a hand. The world is not regenerated 
by occasional spurts of pecuniary generosity from the 
rich to the poor in the name of philanthropy. While it 
sometimes happens that the man who gives another of 
his dollars is the poorer of the two in all the funda- 
mentals of enduring wealth. The man who truly gives 
is the one who puts his shoulders to the wheel for a 
man to man lifting of the load; at the same time that 
he puts his hand in his pocket to help out of the 
abundance of his material possessions. 

Giving money is all right as far as it goes, if it be 
done in brotherly spontaneity, to help another over a 
rough place. Giving in a spirit of " this-relieves-my- 
mind-of-all-further-responsibility "-charity, that tends 
to pull down instead of building up the self-respect 
which is man's best asset in life, is something to be 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 51 

deplored. The charity that increases pauperism has 
no place in the proportioned life of any nation. When 
the Eternal Law of Justice is better understood and 
in working among us, there will be no one wanting it. 

The whole question is one of equity and balance. 
Men all over the world are struggling with it in one way 
or another. By all sorts of possible and impossible 
means, they are trying to realize an ideal by themselves 
too dimly comprehended as yet, to be worked out to 
the full measure of love and law — the Love that 
Christ taught, and the Law that holds the Universe and 
everything in it in Equilibrium. 

It is time that we put aside our childish faith in 
the virtue of self-centred petitions to the Almighty 
to do all kinds of work for us, that the whole Di- 
vine Scheme of Law and Order provides the means 
for us to do for ourselves. It is time for a nobler con- 
cept of what our own contribution to life should be ; 
for a broader understanding of the meaning of give and 
take in the vital struggle for human advancement. 

The Triune Order of Development is not an at- 
tempt to set up a new religion as some may suppose 
from the name. Its purpose is simply to unite those 
who are interested in bettering life for themselves and 
others into a bond of good fellowship and mutual 
helpfulness, without regard to differences of religious 
faith — or even lack of it; certainly without discrim- 
inating against any on account of moral or physical ill- 
health at the time of joining the Order. 



52 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

Sowing the seed of desire for normal balance and 
proportion in soil that is ready for it is quick work. 
Bringing the seed to full fruitage requires the develop- 
ing process of time. It sometimes takes years to rid a 
swamp of noxious germs and reclaim it into a garden 
spot. But nothing can be accomplished without a 
beginning. 

Some of us have made more headway toward self- 
mastery in one direction, some in another. But none 
of us have reached a point of perfection that makes it 
safe to assume an "I am holier than thou" attitude 
toward the humblest of our fellow-beings. 

"Everything inferior is a higher in making, every- 
thing hateful a coming beautiful, everything evil a 
coming good," says an inspired German writer. Triune 
principles too thoroughly accord with this sentiment for 
the Triune Order to set up any arbitrary standard of 
eligibility to its ranks, beyond a sincere determination 
to put its teachings into practice. 

The Triune Order was organized to do a practical 
work in a practical way. It aims to add strength to 
manifold effort already in progress for the betterment 
of our common human nature. But principally along 
lines that have received less attention than their im- 
portance to the balanced life deserves. 

Symmetrical growth of the whole man must be 
both internal and external. The science of right living 
cannot be summed up in spiritual convictions and moral 
probity alone, fundamental as these are. There must 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 53 

be equipoise of physical relationships — of eating and 
drinking, talking and laughing, dancing and singing. 
Amusement is as necessary to a perfect scheme of life 
as work. Joyousness is as legitimately begotten of the 
potency which lies at the heart of things as seriousness. 

Life demands fresh readjustments constantly to 
keep pace with inner unfolding; and many practical 
innovations to give full play to ideals born of increas- 
ing insight. Triune methods are corrective. They 
build health and character by substituting more 
attractive conditions and compelling interests for 
those set aside. To replace the despondency of suffer- 
ing with courage and hope, not only requires renewal 
of faith in the Spiritual Energy, always and everywhere 
at work for man's welfare and healing, but definite 
training in the use of practical means for bringing in- 
harmoniously related members into vital co-operation. 

A barrier strong enough to protect the unfortunate 
from the tyranny of gross appetites, must be so built as 
to make what is sane and wholesome more attractive 
by contrast. Children of vicious tendencies frequently 
grow into noble maturity under right conditions. 
Degeneracy oftener than not yields to changed en- 
vironment, which holds the sufferer square to the 
light of joyous and healthful activities. The life-springs 
are irresistibly renewed under circumstances which 
exhilarate mind and body. Upon the other hand, to 
the treadmill of a routine of drudgery unrelieved by 
contrasts and unbrightened by pleasure, may be 



54 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

traced many cases of ill-health, suicide and varying 
degrees of crime, among those who were normal enough 
at the start. 

Triune Development holds that every human being 
has a right to life's joys as well as its responsibilities. 
One is as essential as the other to the rounding-out of 
character. The instinct for pleasure is inborn, like the 
instinct for food and drink. Slow starvation of 
mind and heart sets in when one is bound to conditions 
that allow nothing to the lighter side of nature. 

Something is wrong with our civilization when 
any among us can be deprived of the rejuvenating 
forces of enjoyment pure and simple. It is plain to 
those who read the New Testament, without prejudice 
left over from the days when nothing was religion that 
was not gloomy, that the Master set the seal of his 
approval upon merrymaking, upon feasting and danc- 
ing, in more than one parable. 

Nature provides liberally for man's delight. The 
universe is full of material for keenest enjoyment. 
Even our day of twenty-four hours is the most perfect 
possible division of time for proportioned work, sleep 
and recreation. The long struggle of certain trades for 
eight hours of labor had a sound reason back of it, and 
won out because it did. The pity is that its benefits 
are still confined to classes and not shared by all alike. 

I know that some who judge by externals only 
contend that the laboring man's present hours of work 
are a positive detriment to his moral nature instead of 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 55 

a gain. These surface reasoners see nothing except 
that those of dissipated tendencies now have more time 
for sensual indulgence than formerly. 

But again, it must be said that something needs 
revising in our system of dealing with the interests of 
the masses, when grosser phases of life continually 
show up in a more alluring light than the higher — 
when it can be argued that any class of men must needs 
be kept at hard work most of their waking hours, to 
keep them out of mischief. 

Why should this be the case, with so much that is 
beautiful in the world to enjoy; and what is the remedy ? 
Why should a vulgar concert hall attract greater num- 
bers than the church a few doors away ? Certainly 
not because man is so degraded at the core that what is 
coarse essentially appeals to him more than what is clean 
and pure. Were this true, the world would be growing 
worse instead of better. And there is ample proof to 
the contrary. 

As Triune Development comprehends the situa- 
tion, purveyors of vice have a shrewd sense of the value 
in stage settings as it were — an understanding of the 
attraction of brilliant light and warmth, of companion- 
ship and good cheer, of music and the opportunity for 
spontaneous movement, which many of the good folk 
who are seeking to draw souls heavenward by means 
which leave the human element out, have not. 

That the Salvation Army owes its large following 
to innovations which deal with man on his physical side, 



56 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

equally with his spiritual, there is no room to doubt. 
And signs are not wanting that other sects and societies 
are waking up to the importance of considering man's 
higher needs in relation to his material environment. 
There has been vast improvement in the last few years 
along many lines of organized work. But we are only 
beginning to understand what should be done and how 
to do it. 

It is easier to deal with some of the worst phases of 
cramping, narrowing conditions peculiar to crowded 
centres of life, than with the dull monotony and loneli- 
ness of remote country districts, where nothing changes 
except the seasons, and social contact is reduced to the 
most elemental forms of intercourse. It is instinctive 
dread of the awful loneliness of nature when out of touch 
with human beings, that keeps many poor wretches 
huddled together in crowded tenements, who would 
unquestionably be better off so far as material comforts 
go, were they to take the oft-repeated advice to settle 
in the country. 

When, however, a man of the finest resources 
within himself is inspired to write — 
"But oftentimes he feels 
The intolerable vastness bow him down, 
The awful homeless spaces scare his soul," 
it is easy to understand why man, a gregarious animal, 
will put up with anything just to be in touch with his 
kind. 

I have been told upon good authority that insanity 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 57 

is more prevalent among farmers and their wives who 
have plenty to eat, with sunshine and fresh air to spare, 
than among the underfed in dark, damp rooms in the 
lower quarters of our large cities. Yet no one questions 
the value of food, sunlight and ozone in making and 
keeping people well and happy. It is all a question 
of relative value and proportion, as Triune Develop- 
ment contends. 

I once asked a middle-aged charwoman who spent 
every moment that she could snatch from work or sleep 
reading the most exaggerated love-stories, what made 
her sacrifice much needed rest for that kind of trash. 
"Readin' them stories ain't no sacrifice ter me," she 
said. " I jest love 'em ! I'm in heaven when I'm readin' 
'bout lords an' ladies an' great folks livin' in palaces, 
an' wearin' dimon's big's stars ; an' makin' love all day 
long. I go ter sleep seein' it all, real's life. It's a heap 
more soothin' than thinkin' I've got ter git up an' go 
ter scrubbin' first thing in the mornin'." 

Her point of view gave me a new insight into 
human hunger for contrasts. She voiced the in- 
stinctive desire for even momentary escape from 
joyless conditions, which those who lure to moral de- 
generacy through drink, drugs and other forms of 
sensuality, understand only too well. It is the same 
instinct which makes dwellers in the slums eagerly 
seize upon the newspaper that prints the most 
highly colored accounts of what the millionaires on 
the avenues are doing; the same that leads many a 



58 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

young man to ruin in gambling-houses and dens of 
infamy; and many a sweet girl bound to daily hard 
conditions of factory, workshop or store, to seek eve- 
ning diversion on the brilliantly lighted highway, without 
a thought that its turn leads to the shady by-path, from 
which our perverted ideas of righteousness make it 
almost impossible for her to return. The same that 
tempts household servants to spend their wages in 
cheap finery, in effort to look like women who pay 
thousands yearly for personal adornment; the same 
that crowds street-cars, hotels, cafes and other public 
places with overdressed women and girls whose husbands 
and fathers are willing to pay for the show which they 
have no other places to display. 

As well might we tell Nature not to robe herself in 
vernal beauty; the sun not to shine, the flowers to 
bloom, the birds to sing, as to tell men and women not 
to desire joy for its own sake, and seek expression for 
its inner promptings in form, color, light, music, mer- 
riment and companionship. 

But it is by no means on the lower social levels only, 
where there is little or no pleasure, that all the suffering 
of disproportion can be found. Men and women there 
are in plenty surrounded by every luxury, whose hearts 
cry out for relief from the emptiness of gaieties which 
lack novelty; and the satiety of consciousness that 
nothing material is left to long for which their money 
will not buy. These people live in houses — not homes — 
and must have several to escape the boredom that 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 59 

becomes intolerable after a few weeks in any one. 
These so-called fortunate ones suffer from the other 
extreme of disproportion. They lack the zest of de- 
light in productive effort for themselves and others, 
an instinct fundamental as life itself. 

Nature is an inexorable accountant. She squares 
things in her own way — but square them she does 
sooner or later. That one class lacks balance and pro- 
portion in one direction and another in the opposite, 
does not mitigate the disheartening certainty of some- 
thing wanting at both extremes. The way of the 
world's progress provides work for all to do. Each of 
us must needs assume our share of its operations in a 
way to prove our stewardship, or pay the penalty in 
poverty of spiritual growth. The Law will not tolerate 
drones. Wherever it finds one he is shorn of the power 
for fulness and joy in the inner satisfactions, which 
alone make life worth living. 



Service Opens the Heart, Enlarges the Understanding, Increases 
Sympathy and Helps Us to Perceive the Good in Human 
Nature Under Conditions Apparently Hopeless. Best of All It 
Teaches Us the True Meaning of the Fatherhood of God and 
the Brotherhood of Man. 



Triune Development seeks by means which will 
be set forth at length in Triune Brieflets, the Quarterly 
Lessons of the Order, to break down false barriers, 
which separate man from man in the larger sense. 
None of us ever learn how to get the most out of life 
until we become inclusive, instead of exclusive. Any 
self-centred, narrow-minded person can set up bar- 
riers which will keep others off his immediate pre- 
serves. But singling one's self out as superior to other 
human kind is no gauge of real worth. The human 
body requires a variety of nutritious food for con- 
stant renewal of wasted tissue; the mind, expansion 
through exchange of ideas with men and women 
all along life's ranges. Education is more than college 
training ; and social culture more than ability to reflect the 
manners and class prejudices of any limited set of people. 

It takes keen perception, unmeasured charity, 
dauntless courage and willingness to both give and re- 
ceive help, to make a strong and self -mastered character 
in any walk of life. It is as easy to be a failure in all 
that counts for true worth at one point in the social scale 
as another. Noble hearts full of helpful impulses can be 
found everywhere, though oftener perhaps, in the mid- 
stream of human interests than at either extreme. 

60 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 61 

In the initial stages of any work it is not easy to 
predict the length to which practical application of its 
basic principles will lead — certainly not to force results. 
Appeal to public confidence must be made upon the 
reasonableness of what is advanced. 

The Triune Order of Development is based upon 
the Law of Equivalents. Its principles are as sound for 
the man of millions as the struggling laborer who finds 
it hard to keep a roof over his head. It stands for 
proportioned duty to self and balanced helpfulness 
to others; for Service in the broad and inclusive 
sense taught by the Master, whose career among 
men was a constant demonstration of love for the 
common good — the only true Socialism. Its teaching 
fits one for life. Learning that gives an insight into 
Greek and Latin, Science and Mathematics, and yet 
leaves a man stranded in physical or moral health, or 
both, sometimes with a perverted sense of spiritual re- 
sponsibilities, and without ability to relate himself har- 
moniously to God or man, or even productively to the 
world of affairs, is a poor apology for education. 

Men everywhere are struggling to get a right per- 
spective of values. They are busy with spiritual and 
moral questions; with the rights of wealth and the 
sufferings of want; with production and distribution, 
equity and justice. And yet with constantly enlarging 
concepts of something needing to be done, and the 
desire to do it in a way to satisfy the heart's deepest 
needs, men in general still lack understanding of what 



62 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT 

constitutes either a balanced spiritual or industrial 
order. They look outward instead of inward; down 
instead of up, and try by precepts to make others 
what they are not themselves, which is the crux of 
the whole matter. Men must become self-mastered 
before they can help others to be so. It is as true 
to-day as it ever was that the man who controls his 
own spirit is mightier than he who taketh a city. 

What should we think of the builder who undertook 
to construct one of those marvels of human skill, which 
rise forty stories into the air, without seeing to it that 
the foundations were deep and secure ? It is even 
more impossible to rear lofty character upon any basis 
but the bed-rock of proportioned growth. 

Human society will never be wiser, nobler or more 
just than are the units which combine to make the aggre- 
gate. We have yet to learn how to direct the life-forces 
from gross gratification to uplifting enjoyment. To know 
that a laugh enters as deeply into the scheme of the 
whole as a prayer; that dramatic expression of joy, 
rhythm and the higher ideals is a vital tonic to health; 
that games play as important a part as work, in training 
muscles and nerves, eyes, hands, feet, head and heart. 

It is hoped that interest in Triune Principles of 
Growth will in time make it possible to establish a 
central Home for the Triune Order, where body and 
character building by methods which leave nothing to 
haphazard chance may be seen in practical working. 
Such a Home would become a model for others 



THE ROAD TO SELF-MASTERY 63 

throughout the country — It would stand for ideals that 
have never been proven practical, simply because they 
have never been fairly tested. For the Balanced 
Powers of Spirit, Mind and Body that give a Man 
vital Self-mastery, and a Nation Collective Strength, 
and a true Solidarity of Human Interests. 



Triune Quarterly Brieflets 

Lessons of the Triune Order. 



SUBJECTS FOR 1910: 

WHAT IS SERVICE 1 
OUR PART IN THE ALL. 
THINGS WORTH STRIVING FOR. 
WITH EYES LIFTED. 



Membership fee in the Triune Order, and Quarterly 
Brieflets, one dollar yearly. 



NOV 5 "1909 



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